It is necessary if and when your wisdom teeth are crowding your mouth and disrupting the arrangement of your other teeth, or when your wisdom teeth have become impacted and/or abscessed. If you have a spacious jaw you may not need to have them removed at all, or possibly only some of them removed.

Typically they are removed between ages 16 and 25. My daughter had hers out at 13 because they were already causing problems for her (she has a very small mouth).

The lowest cost way to do it would be to find a university with a dental school. If you are willing to let dental students do the work (under supervision, mind you) the cost can be a great deal less. Otherwise, either work out a payment plan with the dental surgeon, or join the military and their dentists will take care of it (although the least expensive in terms of cash, this can be a very expensive choice in the long run). Something else to note is that dentists with practices in poorer parts of town often charge lower fees.

Whenever they become a problem for you.
But don’t put it off if it becomes a problem.

Mine came in over the last year and a half. Very, very slowly. A month ago they got infected and had to be removed with about two days notice, it sucked. I couldn’t sleep, I could barely open my jaw, breathing hurt, everything.

The total cost was/is about $2000 for me. And he did a really good job it seems compared to everyone else I’ve spoken to.

When removing teeth, there really isn’t a ‘cost effective’ plan. Most places have payment plans, I would speak to them about it.

Its my opinion dentist and oral surgeons lie to people and tell them they need their wisdom teeth extracted when they really don’t. My dentist said I definitely needed mine extracted. I was 18 at the time. They weren’t even coming in yet. I was off my moms insurance at 18 so I waited. I am now 27. They came in eventually and I have had no problems. My teeth are still straight.

I was having a lot of pain, and headaches. I had already gotten all my dental work take care of, so it had to be my wisdom teeth. I got them take out before they started to actually come in.

I had insurance at the time, and got an estimate. They told me on top of what my insurance would pay them, I had to pay them $1600 deposit. We couldn’t afford that, so I withered in pain..lost my dental insurance…went back to the surgeon..
Turns out, it’s cheaper when you don’t have dental insurance. It cost us $1400 for my 3 wisdom teeth to be removed, under the general anesthesia.

@buster: Dentists, in general, do not lie. They know a lot more about dentistry than you do, but they’re still human. They use their best guess based on their years of education, to tell you what they think is true, and sometimes they’re wrong.

My mom is a dentist, and she suggested I have all of mine taken out when I was 14, before they had caused me any problems. She paid a lot of money for this, and she didn’t get anything out of it, except knowing that she had spared me a lot of pain and hassle in the long run.

Yes, sometimes they don’t ever come in, and sometimes they come in and they don’t cause you any problems. But the majority of the time they do, and many times when that happens, they’ll move all your teeth around before you’ve even realized what’s going on.

We were able to schedule my surgery for a time when I was not busy, and when my mom would be free to take care of me, and I never had to deal with the pain, headaches, or crooked teeth from waiting until later.

@La chica gomela: Its not that Dentists lie, but they tend to be quick to tell you that you NEED to get your wisdom teeth out. The general consensus seems to be that not everyone needs to get teeth removed even after a dentist has told them to. Dentist work can be crucial however due to its high costs it is a luxury.

Personally I would feel better if my dentist told me that ”...oh well its a good idea to get them removed, but we could also wait a couple years and see what happens on its own.” and then refer me to an oral surgeon who will do it on the cheap.

@Rememberme: It’s kind of like when a dermatologist tells you you need to get that mole taken off. It’s not cancerous yet, and it might not ever be. But on the other hand, if it does turn malignant…

The reason that many dentists say that you need to get them out, is that in many or most cases, you don’t know there’s a problem until the damage is already done, and your teeth have shifted.When that happens, you lose some of the bone mass from your jaw, it becomes more difficult or impossible to clean your teeth properly, and you become more vulnerable to a host of other dental problems.